Mural

If your stroll down the street suddenly feels like you’re portaling into another dimension, you may have stumbled into one of Astro’s massive illusions. Parisian graffiti artist Astro creates optical illusion murals that draw viewers into unreachable realms. His trademark curves and abstract calligraphy shapes recently turned up on a residential building in Loures, Portugal, just south of Lisbon for the urban art project Loures Art Publica.

Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra delivers his mural tributes in a kaleidoscope of colors. His muses have ranged from architects to classic historical moments — his rendition of The Kiss was the most liked and reblogged post ever in the history of HAHA — it clocked in at 9,900. The newest of which has popped up in São Paulo, Brazil. The wall, entitled as “Genial is riding a bike”, is 13 meters high by 7 meters large and the painting shows Albert Einstein riding a bicycle. On the front of the bicycle, Kobra has inserted his own version of the famous Einstein formula (E=MC2) which could be translated as: Love= Me + you2 .

Street Artist, Gaia takes a page out of the history books with his latest mural, a stunning modern-day rendition of a Pronkstilleven still life painted by 17th-century Dutch painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem, ‘Flowers in a Vase.’ The mural is located in Jersey City, NJ, Ogden End Community Garden at 102 Ogden Avenue and was done in collaboration with Savage Habbit.

“Using the painting as the base of the composition a portrait of Henry Hudson overlooks the garden from which local flowers have been interspersed throughout the composition, replacing some of the original floral elements. This resulting bouquet and portrait of Hudson, who laid down the Dutch colonization of the Hudson River Valley was created with the use of Photoshop, hence the layers and window tab running across the top, bringing the contemporary element of copy and paste into the construction of this wall.”

I can’t say more good things about seeing an increase of art in urban spaces. I don’t mean white-washed into a downtown space in between clinical looking skyscrapers or in the lobby of some do-gooder office building. I want to pass something incredible on my way into the bodega; snap a picture of a mural through the thick glass of the El train window on my way to work.

This year my inbox saw a parade of press releases for festivals cropping up in India, Brazil, Canada and now I’m crushing on these pics from the ArteSano Project in the Dominican Republic. They drove me straight to Instagram see what was popping up on the streets of DR in real-time. It’s all amazing – use the hashtag #artesanoproject. I was pleasantly surprised to see works from artists like, Pixel Pancho, Axel Void, and Evoca1.

The work I’ve seen so far seems to be blending well with the culture and motifs of the neighborhoods. Feeling the culture and incorporating that into the art can create a visual conversation, a vital component when you’re coming into a new place and trying to interactive within a community. The work should find a home with them and not the other way around.

“The community was transformed during those days and over two weeks they began to see these great artists’ work and create specific pieces in different places around the town,” says Mario E. Ramirez, a Puerto Rican artist who has been documenting and capturing the festival in DR with his partners at Tost Films. He says that an event like this connects with a community yields a greater dialogue than some of the more commercial Street Art and graffiti enterprises because the artists get to interact with neighbors closely. 1

ArteSano Project brought some real flair into the Rio San Juan section of DR with 25 local and international artists – I hope you’ll check them out and support.

I wish it could create a heat wave – although, perhaps a quick glance at the new mural in Weccacoe Park might give you the vapors and fool you into thinking it just got a little warmer.

The temperature illusion I’m referring to is a newly commissioned work by Philly artist, Calo located near Weccacoe Playground in Queen Village.

We can’t get enough of his work; each piece is a thoughtful reach back into places he remembers fondly, his memory playing out the seasons with exacting color. Seriously, his aerosol shopping list for this past summer’s hahaxparadigm project had color descriptions: 1 light orange (like a desert), 1 yellow (don’t think sunrise, think sunset).

I texted Calo as soon as I saw the pictures for this mural hit Instagram.

“Someone just left an island in Queen Village…was that you?”

“So this is my 2nd winter in Philadelphia and I’m getting use to it, little by little. In the winter, my mind and body ask for the big Monstera deliciosa leaves and vibrant color patterns from the markets in the tropics. I tried to feed the warm feelings with this mural”

That dynamic duo, street artists Os Gemeos (Portuguese for the twins) turned six large silos in the industrial area of Granville Island,Canada into their distinctive characters.

Each 75-foot-tall cylinder features a different character, dressed in vibrant colors and bold patterns.

It was unveiled on September 7th as part of Os Gemeos’ international series, Giants, their largest undertaking to date. The art project was organized by the Vancouver Biennale as part of their city-wide effort to convert urban landscapes into open air exhibitions across the city.

This week Amanda Marie dropped this dreamy CampScape in one of Philly’s Community Garden.

Artists, Amanda Marie and X-O (@seeyouthroughit & @ihyland) are road tripping around the US leaving a trail of cool art in public spaces in support and to bring awareness to their “Beautiful Times” tour. Beautiful Times is a collaborative project between the two artists – its goal is to raise awareness about the world we live in, the protection our of children and wild flowers. The tour will support two organizations – Lady Bird Johnson & The Morgan Adams Foundation – whose efforts go into both concerns.

To learn more about “Beautiful Times” go to www.beautifultimes.net.com.

To follow the rest of their tour go to www.bkstreetart.com for exclusive pics. You can help support their work by going to their Beautiful Times Indiegogo page. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beautiful-times#home

Adoring the new Jason Andrew Turner mural that went up over the weekend inside the quaint Philly hot spot, Elixr Coffee . Art at Elixr is curated by Ryan Greenberg, who commissions amazing interior and exterior mural installations that “encourage an open and active dialogue between Elixr, the artists, and the community at large”.

Most people that follow the work of artist Steve Powers aka ‘ESPO’ know about the mural he painted in Philadelphia – off of Front Street, for the promotion of Philly musician, Kurt Vile’s album, “ Waking On a Pretty Daze”.

Well today this unknown guy took it upon himself to paint over the ESPO piece because he thinks “it attracted graffiti to the neighborhood” – you know the one rich in public art. The same neighborhood I toured during a TED WALK on the merits of Public Art.

From what our sources ascertained, he’s neither the property owner or employed by the city, nor might I add associated with any community initiative. After being asked to stop and being told that this was a commissioned piece by world renowned artist ‘ESPO’ – he replied that he didn’t’ give a s$#!. Oddly enough, he did leave without finishing, but he defaced enough it.

But seriously dude, why stop now? You almost wrecked it all… maybe because you stopped to think for more than two seconds to realize you don’t have the right to go around judging what art stays and what goes in our neighborhoods?

What a douche move… and by the way, now the wall looks like crap. Way to go – you accomplished what again?

*photos thanks to Najeeb (@dasheikee) who happened to be driving by the mural when this went down.